Doing nothing during quarantine is the worst feeling. Despite being able to play PC and console games, I find myself using my cell phone most of the time. There aren’t many mobile games that stand out in comparison to the other consoles. However, here are two mobile games that have been taking a lot of my free time recently.

Fate/Grand Order

Before I continue, I highly advise watching the whole Fate series before jumping into the game. It isn’t required, but it will provide you with a lot of background information on how the game works so you won’t go in completely clueless of what is going on.

Fate/Grand Order is a turn-based tactical RPG that takes after the original anime by Type-Moon. However, the protagonist is you, a normal master who ends up with the responsibility to stop the future of human incineration. At first, the story may seem a bit much, but the story is so good that it can even compete with popular titles on actual consoles. The group you command are servants, who are typically historical, literary, and mythological figures from various cultures. The game’s attack system is card-based, which can lead to strategy and RNG situations sometimes. It’s quick to pick up on, so don’t let the card system stop you from playing.

Every couple of weeks, there are summoning campaigns and events. Summoning campaigns are times where you can spend your in-game currency, Saint Quartz, to roll for 5-star servants, rarest in the game. Some servants are only available during those times, so it’s up to you if you want to save up for another summon months later or spend all for the current servant rate-up. Events are cool opportunities in the game as they allow players to retrieve materials by playing/farming the event quests. Don’t take these too lightly, since to fully take advantage of these events, players tend to spend hours a day to farm a stage over and over again for event currency to spend in the shop.

Currently, the North American F/GO server is two years behind the Japan F/GO server, so despite us being outdated in terms of features and servants, we can use this to properly plan out our Saint Quartz and when to roll for certain servants. This may seem a lot to take in at first, but once you get hooked it’s a whole different experience. I currently have gotten a couple of friends into the game and they are also putting in a lot of hours into the game!

Azur Lane

Azur Lane is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up video game created by Chinese developers Shanghai Manjuu and Xiamen Yongshi. It was released in 2017 for the iOS and Android operating systems. Despite coming from a Chinese company, the game is designed with anime artwork and even have characters all voiced by Japanese actresses. You, the Shikikan, are given the task of commanding ship girls and forming fleets to fight against Sirens and enemy ships. If you don’t question the plot, you’ll see that the “ship girls” and their models are actually real ships used in wars or docked somewhere in the world as you read this. 

Players can organize two fleets consisting of a front and back row, with three slots available in each row. During each battle, you control your front three ships manually, or after chapter one, you can use the auto-move feature if you are strong enough. The map on each stage is similar to Battleship and requires a bit of thinking due to the limited ammo you have for your two fleets.

One thing that makes Azur Lane stand out is their connections to the players and how forgiving they are when it comes to their rolling system. If you have played Fate/Grand Order or any other game with a rolling system, you know how brutal the game is if you are unlucky. However, with Azur Lane, they tend to give out Wisdom Cubes (their in-game currency for rolling) quite often, and even have rates surprisingly high. They are well known for their collabs and artwork, so if you are really into anime girls and ships, maybe this game is for you.

As you can see, both of these games are anime heavy. If you are able to look past that and give these games a chance, you may find yourself hooked on at least one of them. The mobile game industry is still growing, so in the future we might find ourselves being able to play new and improved games!